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NEW KID ON THE BLOC

BASKING IN THE GLOW OF BECOMING A GAY DAD, BLOC PARTY SINGER KELE OKEREKE’S NEW SOLO ALBUM IS CALLED FATHERLAND.

INTERVIEW BY MARC ANDREWS. PHOTOGRAPHY BY RACHAEL WRIGHT.

NEW DAD, KELE.

Kele Okereke, lead singer with Bloc Party and solo artist, stands in front of me wearing a baggy shirt, track pants and slippers and asks if I’d like some lemon and ginger tea.

The British rock star lives in a cozy house in South London with his partner of seven years, Gary, and their eight-month-old daughter Susannah. She’s the one crying intermittently upstairs where Gary is on duty so that Kele and DNA can share tea and sympathy.

The 35-year-old Londoner hates interviews and has admitted as much during every interview he’s ever, reluctantly, agreed to over the past 15 years. Yet, with the birth of his daughter, something has shifted. That Kele has invited us into his home, his sanctuary, his baby nursery, seems to indicate he may be stepping up to the plate, not just as a gay role model but a gay dad role model, too.

His third album, Fatherland, is the musician exploring fatherhood (one tender track, Savannah, is a lullaby), his Nigerian heritage and coming to peace with his past. Musically, it’s a marked departure from Bloc Party’s raucous rock anthems, and his last solo album, the underrated Trick, which dabbled in avant-garde house and electro disco. Fatherland is singer/songwriter confessional folk/pop; as if Ed Sheeran were a hunky gay black man who tumbled through years of the sex-n-drugs parties before settling comfortably into round-the-clock parenting.

About DNA Magazine

Yes! We're saying yes to same-sex marriage in Australia ahead of the nationwide postal survey – and so are dozens of celebrity supporters in our #Yes campaign! For readers outside Australia, we're sure you'll enjoy Andrew Lambropoulos on the cover anyway – yes!
Also in DNA this month, we focus on Fitness. Both Samuel Higgins and Laurence Hines have remarkable personal journeys in which they transformed their bodies from unhealthy teens to sort-after models. They're inspirations! And there's 10 pages of hot fitness fashion shot by Russell Fleming on the Gold Coast.
It's a celebrity-packed issue with Kathy Griffin going off on Trump, and the adorable George Takei getting coy about what kind of underwear Sulu from Star Trek wore! Aussie singer Anthony Callea gets fired up about politics and his adventure with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, and Bloc Party's Kele tells us about becoming a gay dad. Aussie hunk Rodger Corser talks about his TV career, who he'd date if he was gay, and what happened when a played a zombie with no underpants!
It's Halloween soon so we found the sexiest Halloween party in LA, and one hell of a street party in New York! Speaking of travel, we continue our Honeymoon Hotspots series with stop-overs in Italy, India and a gay cruise in The Caribbean.
There's Dear Diva's wise-ass advice, The Deplorables, Month In A Minute and a great lesbian romance movie, The Battle Of The Sexes.
All that and more in this month’s DNA. Enjoy!